August 23, 2017

"Can a General Conquer the Federal Prison System?"

The question in the title of this post is the headline of this new extended Marshall Project piece looking at the challenges facing the newly appointed head of the federal Bureau of Prisons. Here is how it gets started:

The federal Bureau of Prisons faces a sea of troubles: Escalating medical costs, a prison population with little access to job training programs or computers, an institutional culture averse to change. In steps Mark S. Inch, the retired two-star general selected by Attorney General Jeff Sessions last month to run the Bureau of Prisons.

Inch retired from the Army in May after more than three decades in the military, mostly as a police officer. While some prison advocates are wary of a leader from an organization disgraced by the abuses at Abu Ghraib, others say a military man may have the courage and discipline to move a stodgy federal prison system toward reforms that have been stalled for years.

“He would provide strong leadership, demand accountability, transparency, and I believe he would be a general who has the ability to think outside the box,” said federal prison consultant Jack Donson, who does not know Inch but worked for the Bureau of Prisons for more than two decades.

In a statement after appointing Inch, Sessions called the retired general “uniquely qualified” because of his policing background and his time overseeing Army Corrections over the past two years. He replaces Thomas Kane, a 40-year veteran of the federal prison system who had been acting director since early 2016.

The Bureau of Prisons houses more than 187,000 inmates and employs more than 39,000 workers spread out across 122 correctional facilities, six regional offices, a headquarters, two training centers, and 25 residential reentry management offices. The BOP also has contracts with 11 private prisons.

Outside the military, not much is known about Inch, especially among those who have worked in the federal prison system, prisoner advocates and corrections officials. Will Inch be an ally for better prisoner education? Will he limit the amount of time prisoners are held in isolation? Will he rely on controversial for-profit prisons to house new inmates?Inch hasn’t said.

Prisoner advocacy groups have asked Justice officials if any hearings will be held to examine Inch’s background and priorities. They were told no.